Chapter 9: Wang Qiaomei – Daily Gossip in the Courtyard of the Sickly Young Aunt

Chapter 9 Wang Qiaomei—The Daily Gossip of a Frail Young Divorcee in the Compound

After divorcing Zhou Qin, Wang Qiaomei moved back to her parents' home, but her family wasn’t exactly welcoming.

When the Wang family failed to squeeze any advantages out of Wang Qiaomei yet again, they became reluctant to let her stay any longer.

Under the family’s urging, Wang’s mother went to find a matchmaker, hoping to cash in on another bride price.

Realizing her family’s intentions, Wang Qiaomei immediately understood she couldn’t stay there any longer—she had to get out—fast.

The next day, she applied for a dormitory at the factory and promptly moved out.

She knew that moving out alone wouldn’t cut it. As long as she remained unmarried, the Wang family would still see her as a pawn to exploit. So, she quickly began searching for a new partner.

However, her reputation was already ruined, especially around the machinery factory, making it impossible for her to find a decent match.

This left her feeling somewhat disheartened.

Especially after hearing that Zhou Qin had already remarried.

Both of them were considered "unmarriageable types," so why had Zhou Qin managed to remarry so quickly?

She seethed!

Then, she suddenly thought of Su Shengnan and set her sights on the Revolutionary Committee.

Su Shengnan wasn’t half as pretty as her, yet she had managed to bag a Deputy Director of the Revolutionary Committee as her partner. Surely, she could do the same.

Once the idea took hold, she jumped into action. First, she carefully studied the current leadership of the Revolutionary Committee.

Under the Director of the Revolutionary Committee, there were three deputy directors. One of them, Deputy Director Zheng, had been ousted due to the incident involving Su Shengnan, and a new Deputy Director Li had been sent in from above. The other two were Deputy Director Bai and Deputy Director Liu.

After her research, she discovered that all three deputy directors were married, which wasn’t what she’d hoped.

But she wasn’t willing to give up just yet, so she pivoted her focus to the widowed, single Director of the Revolutionary Committee, who was nearly fifty years old.

She was torn—should she really set her sights on this director?

If Su Shengnan could hook a deputy director, then she, who was even more capable than Su Shengnan, should logically aim for a director, right?

Still, the thought of shacking up with a fifty-year-old man made her somewhat reluctant.

However, after deliberately arranging a "so-called chance encounter" with the director, her last bit of hesitation vanished.

The fifty-year-old man was actually quite handsome. Aside from a few streaks of white hair, his upright posture made him look far better than some potbellied guys in their thirties.

Ugh…

Indeed, the one she was comparing him to was Zhou Qin. Compared to Zhou Qin, she’d choose the older man in a heartbeat!

Once her decision was made, she immediately kicked off her "bump-into-him" scheme.

The Director of the Revolutionary Committee was a shrewd and experienced man. After Wang Qiaomei appeared before him multiple times, he promptly investigated her background.

Finding nothing particularly noteworthy, he paid no further attention and let nature take its course.

She wanted clout; he wanted eye candy—both understood the unspoken agreement, and soon enough, they got tangled up.

After the two got together, the ones with the most complicated feelings were the underlings under the Revolutionary Committee.

Remember, back then, it was them who went to the hospital to arrest her. Although they returned empty-handed in the end, the incident was very real!

Now that she’s become their top boss's woman, what the hell are they gonna do? Will she seek revenge?

In short, everyone was sweating bullets.

"Goddamn it, was this woman doing it on purpose?"

"Who knows? Anyway, we’d better be careful lately and not give anyone ammo."

Wang Qiaomei truly had no idea about this—it never even crossed her mind.

After all, during that hospital incident, she saved all her hate for the Zhou family. The others didn't even register.

Because of the Zhou family, she had lost two children, and Wang Qiaomei wasn't about to let them off the hook.

She had always known that the Zhou family’s greatest desire was to have descendants. She believed that the cruelest punishment for them would be to crush that hope.

She knew that after that incident, Zhou Qin was mostly shooting blanks and was almost incapable of having children.

But she felt it wasn’t enough. What if Zhou Qin’s new wife pulled the same stunt she did, passing off some other man's kid as his?

Even if it was fake, Wang Qiaomei didn’t want the Zhou family to have it.

So, when she found out that the Zhou family was seeking quack cures for their newlywed daughter-in-law, a new scheme popped into her head.

She hired someone to play a fortune-teller and mixed the same sterilizing drug she had once given Eldest Master Zhou into the folk remedy, which the Zhou family then took home.

After inquiring around the residential compound and confirming that the new wife had indeed taken the medicine, Wang Qiaomei couldn’t help but bust out laughing.

Passersby thought she'd lost her marbles, as if something was wrong with her mind.

Once the Zhou family matter was settled, she turned her thoughts to Jin Jianhua. Without his ability, he wasn't her precious Jianhua-ge anymore.

Actually, Wang Qiaomei was onto Zhang Mengyun's little game all along.

At the time, she had been recuperating at home and could clearly observe the situation in the courtyard. Zhang Mengyun had visited far too frequently, and every time she came, only Jin's kid brother was around in the Jin household. How could that be a coincidence?

But she wasn't about to blow the whistle.

Even a single night as husband and wife earns you a hundred days' worth of goodwill. Though the passion between Wang Qiaomei and Jin Jianhua had faded, there was still some leftover fondness.

Even if it wasn’t real, at least Jin Jianhua had a descendant—way better off than that loser Zhou Qin.

That’s what Wang Qiaomei thought.

After getting together with the Revolutionary Committee director, Wang Qiaomei lived high on the hog.

But as time passed, with the reinstatement of the college entrance exams and the reform and opening-up, the Revolutionary Committee underwent restructuring, and many who had abused their power were removed.

The old director she had attached herself to was also ousted by those he had previously sent to the countryside.

Once again, she lost her protector.

Fortunately, she hadn’t been involved in the raids and persecutions, just barely dodged a bullet.

Still, life afterward was full of people gunning for her, and she didn’t fare too well.

This time, under her family’s arrangements, she was pawned off on some butcher.

This butcher, with his menacing looks, had been unable to find a new wife after being widowed.

He only managed to marry Wang Qiaomei by shelling out big money to "buy" her.

As it turned out, the reason the butcher couldn't find a wife wasn't just his intimidating looks—he was also brutal when he beat people.

After remarrying the butcher, Wang Qiaomei truly didn’t dare even think about stepping out again, because the butcher’s beatings hurt like hell!

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